Revenant by Kat Richardson

 With this, the ninth in the Greywalker series, we suddenly find ourselves a long way afield with Harper Blaine when Quinton's father, James Purliss, turns up in the middle of a plot to gain supernatural power in Portugal. Harper calls upon the vampire, Carlos, for help in getting her out of the country without anyone who might be watching noticing that she's gone, and he has her shipped in a coffin to his family's home in Lisbon, in the heart of the Alfama district.

My surmise is that Richardson has recently enjoyed a trip to Portugal (it turns out in the afterwords that she planned it but had to cancel), and decided to make use of her research in this novel. My wife and I visited Portugal a couple of years ago, and so it's proven vastly entertaining as I read this novel to find myself recognizing and visualizing the places Harper and Quinton go, such as when they get on the train to Cascais, where we have family, and spent a great deal of our time, or talk about the castle of St. George, a lovely place to visit and picnic at the crown of a hill in Lisboa, or she mentions in passing the pilgrims crawling on their knees to the shrine in Fatima.

When Harper arrives, she finds out that Purliss has kidnapped his own granddaughter, Soraia, who has budding supernatural talents, and has given her to his allies, the bone mages, who are building a spell which will have apocalyptic results in Portugal, giving them vast power. Quinton, Harper, and Carlos must rescue the girl from the mages, and find a way to thwart their plans. When Carlos is nearly destroyed by the apprentice of an old enemy, one of the mages, Harper's desperate sacrifice to save his life leaves the two of them changed, perhaps in ways which will affect the path of the plot arc eventually.

A marvelous (hopefully temporary) finale to the Grewalker series.

Possession by Kat Richardson

I really like how Richardson infuses her Harper Blaine stories with local lore, mixed well with more geographically diverse legends. In this installment, the mystery hinges upon the spirit of an early serial killer in Seattle, adds a local native American figure, plus the catalyst of an old goddess, imported from Europe.

Harper's case begins with her trying to figure out why an improbable number of people, statistically speaking, have passed into vegetative states which are interrupted by the symptoms of old-time spiritualists' ghost manifestations, such as directed painting and writing, and ghostly writing in blood scratched on skin.

Her boyfriend Quinton's father shows up in this story when he's capturing supernaturals and suborning and studying them, and this brings in Harper's old allies, Cameron and Carlos, when the elder Purvis captures one of their dhampires.

As seems to be a common theme in urban fantasy this year, Harper finds out in this novel just how connected she is to her friends and family, and realizes that she has more allies and support than she ever thought possible.

Seawitch by Kat Richardson

Greywalker Harper Blaine has been hired by an insurance company to investigate the unexpected reappearance of a yacht which has been missing for twenty seven years, to see if fraud might be involved, though the claim was paid long ago. Of course, things begin to get weird rapidly, when she and Dective Rey Solis step aboard the boat, it's obvious to her Grey-tuned senses that the boat is haunted, and that some sort of magic ritual was performed there. The Guardian Beast gets involved, as well, and demands that she free the ghosts trapped aboard.

Richardson introduces some new paranormal elements in this story, notably the merfolk and the dobhar-chu, shapeshifting giant otters out of Irish legend. The investigation proceeds methodically at first, interviewing stale witnesses and trying to get more background on the owner and passengers of the yacht, who never did return to port. Complicating matters, her boyfriend Quinton's father appears on the scene to try to convince him to join him in some nefarious investigations of paranormal creatures.

Harper, Quinton and Rey, aided by an aging would-be pirate, must sail into dangerous waters to put this tale to rest. They battle a conjured storm, monstrous illusions, and the Sea Witch herself at the end. Lots of local color makes this one a great adventure, somewhat different in tone than earlier books in the series.

Downpour by Kat Richardson

Downpour is the sixth book in the Greywalker series, and Richardson has indeed allowed Harper Blaine to chase after lesser monsters for a time. This is a good thing, as after she was shot at the end of the last book, she's lost stamina, and a certain amount of her Grey manipulating abilities, though perhaps has gained some more subtle arcane skills. The saga continues to be a little dark, but as one might expect from a setting in the western rain forest zone, gets pretty wet, as well.

While investigating a witness for a lawyer friend in a mundane case, Harper encounters the ghost of a man who has been murdered and his car disposed of by dumping it in the middle of Lake Crescent, near Port Angeles. For better or worse, Harper is still the chosen agent of the Guardian Beast of the Grey, and it's up to her to remedy disturbances in that realm.

The lake area has long been a center and source of magical power, and two major ley lines cross there. But  one of the ley lines has come unglued when its anchor was removed, and the resulting flailing around of the untethered end has resulted in a free for all situation for the magic users, magic creatures, and other denizens of this sleepy little resort area.

Richardson weaves a lot of local flavor into this tale, and spent a significant amount of time in the area researching its history. Harper and Quinton take their relationship to a whole new level, which may foreshadow a more active role for him in future installments. In place of the Egyptian mythos that we saw in Labyrinth, she adds an element of Chinese mysticism to this story. Will she continue to have Harper roam farther and farther afield, or will we return to her old stomping grounds in the next novel?

Labyrinth by Kat Richardson

In Labyrinth, Harper Blaine returns from her harrowing ordeal in London to find that Edward, the vampire who sent her to England, has gone missing. What happens in London evidently doesn't stay in London, and the Pharaon of the asetem egyptian vampires, Wygan, is once again manipulating people and events for his unknown, but probably not beneficent, purposes.

Harper and her geeky boyfriend, Quinton, from the moment she arrives, are under attack from the asetem, and they can't remain at his bolthole or her condo, so they move in with Ben and Mara, hoping that the witch's wards and the new location will keep their enemies at bay. They are determined to find out what Wygan is really up to, and that trail will lead Harper, in and out of the Grey, to some odd places.

The tone of this book continues to be quite dark. Harper has come to realize that she may not survive her conflict with Wygan. Wygan has manipulated things so that she has been forced to become more and more a part of the weft and weave of the Grey, so that he can use her at some point to bring his plans to fruition. Harper's loyalty to her friends, such as Edward and Will, and even her father's ghost, may be her greatest weakness, but conversely her greatest strength.

One thing that was a bit distracting to me was the level of detail and descriptive writing about Harper's perceptions of the Grey. A necessary distraction, perhaps, but it did slow down the pace a bit more than I liked. Richardson sounds like she's going to continue this series, and I wonder what direction it will go after the conflict with her arch-nemesis has been resolved. Will she confront lesser monsters for a time, or will even Wygan turn out to have been manipulated by a deeper, darker evil?

Mean Streets, by Jim Butcher et. al.

Actually, my wife picked up this collection of four novellas at Hastings when she was between books. She's a Harry Dresden fan, but I don't think she enjoyed the rest of the book all that much.

In The Warrior, Butcher gives us an out-take on Harry and his friend, Michael. Michael was injured to the point of not being able to continue as the holder of Amoracchius, the blessed sword, any more, in an earlier Dresden novel. Harry becomes aware that someone is threatening Michael and his family in order to take possession of the sword, of which Harry is the custodian.

When Harry confronts the culprit, the action goes about as one would expect, but there are some interesting revelations about the story arc, and about Harry's true place in the scheme of things - read God's Plan. A good vignette to fill in some details.

I'm not a big fan of the Nightside series by Simon Green, though I own and have read the first novel. Green, via Taylor, is trying to be just a little too smarmy and cute with his tales of the evil that lurks in the hearts of men and in the Nightside, but if you like this series, you'll probably enjoy the additional glimpses it offers into this world.

I do, however, love the Greywalker novels by Kat Richardson, and the short story included here about Harper Blaine's quest to place an odd dog statue on a man's grave in Mexico was definitely interesting. I don't know how much of the detail provided about the Mexican Day of the Dead was accurate, but if it was, it's another bit of trivia to tuck away in my brain. Harper's ability to talk with the dead comes in handy, and she ends up putting some old injustices right.

I'd never heard of Thomas E. Sniegosky before, but I may just have to pick up his Remy Chandler books and give them a try. Remy is a fallen angel who masquerades as a human private eye. He's dragged into investigating the murder of Noah (yes, that Noah) by a group of fallen angels called the Grigori, whom he is not all that fond of.

There's an interesting (highly heretical) retelling of the story of the biblical Flood here, and I found the entire premise amusing.

A good collection, all in all.

Vanished, by Kat Richardson

The latest in the Ghostwalker series is quite interesting. It starts off with Harper receiving a phone call in the middle of the night from her dead boyfriend, and just gets weirder from that point, if you can imagine that. She decides she needs to return to the scene to investigate further, so she flies to Los Angeles, back to her roots. She pays a visit to her mother, and gets the astounding revelation that her Dad didn't die by accident, but killed himself. Digging through his old journals, she begins to understand that he had also been plagued by visions of stranged creatures living in the Grey, and finally took his own life to keep them from exploiting him for their nefarious purposes.


After a few days there, she gets a call from Edward Kammeling, leader of the vampires back in Seattle, and returns on his private jet for a meeting with him. One of his fellow vampires back in London has been looking after Edward's business interests there for some time, and has disappeared. He convinces Harper to be his agent there, to find out what's happened. Harper has also had a couple of vivid dreams about her ex-boyfriend, Will, who works at Sotheby's there, being in danger, so she may be able to look into Kammerling's problems and check on Will, at the same time.

Richardson's tale of Harper's escapades in London is filled with all sorts of interesting little details about the area and its history. It feels like she either just got back from a vacation there, spent a lot of time studying Lonely Planet's London, or was a student of British history; maybe all three of the above.

As one might surmise, the vampire's troubles and Will's situation are linked. The cabal that has taken over Edward's territory has also kidnapped Will as a lever on Harper, and some of her old enemies are trying to trap her and use her for their own ends.

This one has some great action, eerie moments, and is pretty fun. The only downside from my perspective is that at the end of this novel, there's still some integral details that have to be dealt with back in Seattle, and we last see Harper on the plane, flying home. So, we'll have to wait for the sequel to see how this batch of troubles gets dealt with. Looks like the book, Labyrinth, won't be out till August, so check back then and we'll talk.